The Toronto Maple Leafs placed eight players on waivers Thursday in the biggest training-camp cut of their pre-season, headlined by veteran forward Steven Lorentz, according to TSN.
Lorentz, 30, carries a $1.35 million salary-cap hit through the 2027-28 season and recorded seven goals and 18 points in 71 games with Toronto last season. He was absent from practice Thursday. Also waived were forwards Brendan Brisson, Vinni Lettieri, Michael Pezzetta, Henrik Rybinski and Ryan Tverberg, along with defencemen Philippe Myers and Marshall Rifai. All are expected to report to the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies if they clear waivers Friday. Defencemen Dakota Mermis and Cole McWard were placed on waivers a day earlier and already cleared.
“No matter what your contract looks like, you always have to come in and fight for a job,” Lorentz said, according to TheLeafsNation. The moves fit general manager John Chayka’s stated off-season priority of adding speed to the lineup.
The larger question in Toronto is forward Nick Paul, who left Wednesday’s pre-season game against the Ottawa Senators with an undisclosed injury and did not return. Head coach Jim Hiller called Paul day-to-day and said he does not believe the injury is serious, but Paul’s availability for the Sept. 29 season opener against the Montreal Canadiens remains uncertain. Paul had been skating on Toronto’s third line with Easton Cowan and Colton Sissons through training camp.
Elsewhere in the league, the outlook worsened for Pittsburgh Penguins rookie centre Ben Kindel. Amanda Kessel, the Penguins’ manager of minor-league operations, said Thursday that Kindel’s lower-body injury, suffered when he crashed into the net during Monday’s 7-4 pre-season win over Buffalo, is now considered week-to-week rather than day-to-day, according to Daily Faceoff. Kindel, the 11th overall pick in the 2025 draft, scored 17 goals and added 18 assists in 77 games as a rookie last season and had been projected to Pittsburgh’s third line with Bryan Rust and Andrei Kuzmenko.
A handful of notable names were set to make their pre-season debuts Thursday. Patrick Kane was slated to play his only exhibition game before the Sept. 29 opener when Chicago played St. Louis, while San Jose rookies Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith were due to debut against Anaheim. In Dallas, Tyler Seguin was expected to make his own pre-season debut Friday against Minnesota as he continues his recovery from December ACL surgery, according to NHL.com’s status report.
The moves come less than a week before the NHL’s 2026-27 regular season opens Sept. 29, when Carolina visits Florida and Toronto hosts Montreal in the league’s traditional openers.
